Various types of paperboard boxes, bins and trays have been devised to store and organize piece parts and other small items.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,462,676, issued to Riley et al. is directed to a fiberboard carton cut from a substantially rectangular blank that can be shipped flat. In use partition blanks are separated from the main blank, which is folded to form a carton, and the partitions are installed to separate up to twelve bottles. U.S. Pat. No. 519,005, issued to Reeves discloses a box and partition made from one piece of cardboard or similar material with the blank separated into the box portion and the divider portions. The dividers interlock to form twelve rectangular compartments. U.S. Pat. No. 3,977,592, issued to Gorham, describes a one-piece die cut carton blank that incorporates four cell divider panels formed integrally with the blank. U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,115, issued to Watson, illustrates a novel blank of foldable sheet material such as paperboard which is cut and scored to provide a carton forming section and an integral partition forming section detachably connected to each other.
An effective design for a bin for piece parts and similar items must necessarily be a compromise of various factors. It is an objective of the present invention that the parts bin provides the ability to segregate different parts within the same bin. It is a further objective that the parts bin have compartments that can be varied in size to make maximum use of the space available when differing quantities of different types of parts are to be organized. It is yet a further objective of the invention that the parts bin is economical to produce and simple to assemble. It is a still further objective that the parts bin can be formed from a single piece of paperboard.
While features disclosed in the prior art satisfy some of the objectives of the present invention, none of the inventions found include all of the requirements identified.